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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /><meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1" /><title>Job 21 ESV</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="/chapnew2.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="../spec.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="/print.css" type="text/css" media="Print" /></head><body><div id="fx"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx2"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="30" scrolling="no" src="../cmenus/job/21.htm" align="left" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div><div id="blnk"></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable"><tr><td><div id="fx5"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" 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title="Job 20">◄</a> Job 21 <a href="../job/22.htm" title="Job 22">►</a></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center" class="maintable2"><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><div id="leftbox"><div class="padleft"><div class="vheading"><table width="100%"><tr><td width="99%" valign="top">English Standard Version</td><td width="1%" valign="top"><a href="/p/esv/nas/job/21.shtml" style="color:#001320" title="Parallel Chapters"> Par ▾ </a></tr></table></div></a><div class="chap"><p class="heading">Job Replies: The Wicked Do Prosper</p><p class="regular"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/job/21-1.htm"><b>1</b></a></span>Then Job answered and said:</p> <span class="block-indent"><p class="line-group"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/job/21-2.htm"><b>2</b></a></span><span class="ln-group">“Keep listening to my words,</span><br /><span class="indent">and let this be your comfort.</span><br /> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/job/21-3.htm"><b>3</b></a></span><span class="ln-group">Bear with me, and I will speak,</span><br /><span class="indent">and after I have spoken, mock on.</span><br /> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/job/21-4.htm"><b>4</b></a></span><span class="ln-group">As for me, is my complaint against man?</span><br /><span class="indent">Why should I not be impatient?</span><br /> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/job/21-5.htm"><b>5</b></a></span><span class="ln-group">Look at me and be appalled,</span><br /><span class="indent">and lay your hand over your mouth.</span><br /> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/job/21-6.htm"><b>6</b></a></span><span class="ln-group">When I remember, I am dismayed,</span><br /><span class="indent">and shuddering seizes my flesh.</span><br /> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/job/21-7.htm"><b>7</b></a></span><span class="ln-group">Why do the wicked live,</span><br /><span class="indent">reach old age, and grow mighty in power?</span><br /> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/job/21-8.htm"><b>8</b></a></span><span class="ln-group">Their offspring are established in their presence,</span><br /><span class="indent">and their descendants before their eyes.</span><br /> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/job/21-9.htm"><b>9</b></a></span><span class="ln-group">Their houses are safe from fear,</span><br /><span class="indent">and no rod of God is upon them.</span><br /> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/job/21-10.htm"><b>10</b></a></span><span class="ln-group">Their bull breeds without fail;</span><br /><span class="indent">their cow calves and does not miscarry.</span><br /> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/job/21-11.htm"><b>11</b></a></span><span class="ln-group">They send out their little boys like a flock,</span><br /><span class="indent">and their children dance.</span><br /> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/job/21-12.htm"><b>12</b></a></span><span class="ln-group">They sing to the tambourine and the lyre</span><br /><span class="indent">and rejoice to the sound of the pipe.</span><br /> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/job/21-13.htm"><b>13</b></a></span><span class="ln-group">They spend their days in prosperity,</span><br /><span class="indent">and in peace they go down to Sheol.</span><br /> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/job/21-14.htm"><b>14</b></a></span><span class="ln-group">They say to God, ‘Depart from us!</span><br /><span class="indent">We do not desire the knowledge of your ways.</span><br /> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/job/21-15.htm"><b>15</b></a></span><span class="ln-group">What is the Almighty, that we should serve him?</span><br /><span class="indent">And what profit do we get if we pray to him?’</span><br /> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/job/21-16.htm"><b>16</b></a></span><span class="ln-group">Behold, is not their prosperity in their hand?</span><br /><span class="indent">The counsel of the wicked is far from me.</span></p> <p class="line-group"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/job/21-17.htm"><b>17</b></a></span><span class="ln-group">“How often is it that the lamp of the wicked is put out?</span><br /><span class="indent">That their calamity comes upon them?</span><br /><span class="indent">That God<span class="footnote"><sup><a href="#footnotes" title="Hebrew he">a</a></sup></span> distributes pains in his anger?</span><br /> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/job/21-18.htm"><b>18</b></a></span><span class="ln-group">That they are like straw before the wind,</span><br /><span class="indent">and like chaff that the storm carries away?</span><br /> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/job/21-19.htm"><b>19</b></a></span><span class="ln-group">You say, ‘God stores up their iniquity for their children.’</span><br /><span class="indent">Let him pay it out to them, that they may know it.</span><br /> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/job/21-20.htm"><b>20</b></a></span><span class="ln-group">Let their own eyes see their destruction,</span><br /><span class="indent">and let them drink of the wrath of the Almighty.</span><br /> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/job/21-21.htm"><b>21</b></a></span><span class="ln-group">For what do they care for their houses after them,</span><br /><span class="indent">when the number of their months is cut off?</span><br /> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/job/21-22.htm"><b>22</b></a></span><span class="ln-group">Will any teach God knowledge,</span><br /><span class="indent">seeing that he judges those who are on high?</span><br /> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/job/21-23.htm"><b>23</b></a></span><span class="ln-group">One dies in his full vigor,</span><br /><span class="indent">being wholly at ease and secure,</span><br /> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/job/21-24.htm"><b>24</b></a></span><span class="ln-group">his pails<span class="footnote"><sup><a href="#footnotes" title="The meaning of the Hebrew word is uncertain">b</a></sup></span> full of milk</span><br /><span class="indent">and the marrow of his bones moist.</span><br /> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/job/21-25.htm"><b>25</b></a></span><span class="ln-group">Another dies in bitterness of soul,</span><br /><span class="indent">never having tasted of prosperity.</span><br /> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/job/21-26.htm"><b>26</b></a></span><span class="ln-group">They lie down alike in the dust,</span><br /><span class="indent">and the worms cover them.</span></p> <p class="line-group"><span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/job/21-27.htm"><b>27</b></a></span><span class="ln-group">“Behold, I know your thoughts</span><br /><span class="indent">and your schemes to wrong me.</span><br /> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/job/21-28.htm"><b>28</b></a></span><span class="ln-group">For you say, ‘Where is the house of the prince?</span><br /><span class="indent">Where is the tent in which the wicked lived?’</span><br /> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/job/21-29.htm"><b>29</b></a></span><span class="ln-group">Have you not asked those who travel the roads,</span><br /><span class="indent">and do you not accept their testimony</span><br /> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/job/21-30.htm"><b>30</b></a></span><span class="ln-group">that the evil man is spared in the day of calamity,</span><br /><span class="indent">that he is rescued in the day of wrath?</span><br /> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/job/21-31.htm"><b>31</b></a></span><span class="ln-group">Who declares his way to his face,</span><br /><span class="indent">and who repays him for what he has done?</span><br /> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/job/21-32.htm"><b>32</b></a></span><span class="ln-group">When he is carried to the grave,</span><br /><span class="indent">watch is kept over his tomb.</span><br /> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/job/21-33.htm"><b>33</b></a></span><span class="ln-group">The clods of the valley are sweet to him;</span><br /><span class="indent">all mankind follows after him,</span><br /><span class="indent">and those who go before him are innumerable.</span><br /> <span class="reftext"><a href="http://biblehub.com/job/21-34.htm"><b>34</b></a></span><span class="ln-group">How then will you comfort me with empty nothings?</span><br /><span class="indent">There is nothing left of your answers but falsehood.”</span></p><A name="footnotes"></a><hr size="1" color="DDEEFF"><span class="mainfootnotes"><span class="mainfootnoteshdg">Footnotes:</span><br><span class="footnotesbot">a</span> <span class="fnverse">17</span> Hebrew <i>he</i><br /><span class="footnotesbot">b</span> <span class="fnverse">24</span> The meaning of the Hebrew word is uncertain<br /></span></div></div><div id="botbox"><div class="padbot"><div align="center">ESV Text Edition® (2016).<br /><br />The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®) copyright © 2001 by <a href="http://www.crossway.org/home/esv/">Crossway Bibles</a>, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. The ESV® text has been reproduced in cooperation with and by permission of Good News Publishers. Unauthorized reproduction of this publication is prohibited. All rights reserved.<br /><br />The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®) is adapted from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. 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